Nia Therapeutics: Precision brain stimulation for memory loss

The Problem

Memory deficits are personally devastating and represent a large societal unmet need. Over 20 million Americans currently suffer from memory loss due to traumatic brain injury, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease. Nia’s technology has the potential to help these patients by improving memory, reducing disability and increasing productivity.

Our Solution

Nia Therapeutics is developing precision brain stimulation therapies to treat memory loss due to brain injury and degenerative disease. Nia’s technology was developed at the University of Pennsylvania with funding from DARPA. Our team has shown that when stimulation is delivered to a specific part of the brain (the temporal lobe) when memory is predicted to fail, it can significantly improve memory performance.

How does it work?

Good memory is associated with specific patterns of brain activity. Nia’s technology first identifies the unique pattern of brain activity in each person, and then continuously monitors the brain to diagnose memory function from moment to moment, delivering stimulation when needed to keep each patient in the zone of good memory performance.